Linux Blog

pine

NAME

pine - a Program for Internet News and Email

SYNTAX

pine
[
options
] [
address
,
address
]

pinef
[
options
] [
address
,
address
]

DESCRIPTION

Pine is a screen-oriented message-handling tool. In its default
configuration, Pine offers an intentionally limited set of
functions geared toward the novice user, but it also has a growing
list of optional "power-user" and personal-preference features.
pinef
is a variant of Pine that uses function keys rather than mnemonic
single-letter commands.
Pine's basic feature set includes:

View, Save, Export, Delete, Print, Reply and Forward messages.

Compose messages in a simple editor (Pico) with word-wrap and a spelling
checker. Messages may be postponed for later completion.

Full-screen selection and management of message folders.

Address book to keep a list of long or frequently-used addresses.
Personal distribution lists may be defined.
Addresses may be taken into the address book from
incoming mail without retyping them.

Pine supports MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), an Internet
Standard for representing multipart and multimedia data in email.
Pine allows you to save MIME objects to files, and in some
cases, can also initiate the correct program for viewing the object.
It uses the system's
mailcap
configuration file to determine what program can process a particular MIME
object type.
Pine's message composer does not have integral multimedia capability, but
any type of data file --including multimedia-- can be attached to a text
message and sent using MIME's encoding rules. This allows any group of
individuals with MIME-capable mail software (e.g. Pine, PC-Pine, or many
other programs) to exchange formatted documents, spread-sheets, image
files, etc, via Internet email.

Pine uses the
c-client
messaging API to access local and remote mail folders. This
library provides a variety of low-level message-handling functions,
including drivers
for a variety of different mail file formats, as well as routines
to access remote mail and news servers, using IMAP (Internet Message
Access Protocol) and NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol). Outgoing mail
is usually handed-off to the Unix
sendmail,
program but it can optionally be posted directly via SMTP
(Simple Mail Transfer Protocol).

OPTIONS

The command line options/arguments are:

address

Send mail to
address.
This will cause Pine to go directly into the message composer.

-attach file

Send mail with the listed
file
as an attachment.

-attachlist file-list

Send mail with the listed
file-list
as an attachments.

-attach_and_delete file

Send mail with the listed
file
as an attachment, and remove the file
after the message is sent.

-aux local_directory

PC-Pine only. When using a remote configuration (-p <remote_config>) this tells
PC-Pine the local directory to use for storing auxiliary files, like debug
files, address books, and signature files.

-bail

Exit if the pinerc file does not exist. This might be useful if the config
file is accessed using some remote filesystem protocol. If the remote mount
is missing this will cause Pine to quit instead of creating a new pinerc.

-c context-number

context-number is the number corresponding to the
folder-collection to which the
-f
command line argument should be applied. By default the
-f
argument is applied to the first defined folder-collection.

-conf

Produce a sample/fresh copy of the
system-wide configuration file,
pine.conf,
on the standard output. This is distinct from the per-user
.pinerc
file.

-convert_sigs -p pinerc

Convert signature files into literal signatures.

-copy_abook <local_abook> <remote_abook>

Copy the local address book file to a remote address book folder.

-copy_pinerc <local_pinerc> <remote_pinerc>

Copy the local pinerc file to a remote pinerc folder.

-create_lu addrbook sort-order

Creates auxiliary index (look-up) file for
addrbook
and sorts
addrbook
in
sort-order,
which may be
dont-sort,
nickname,
fullname,
nickname-with-lists-last,
or
fullname-with-lists-last.
Useful when creating global or shared address books.
After creating the index file in this way, the file should be moved or
copied in a way which preserves the mtime of the address book file.
The mtime of the address book file at the time the index file was built is
stored inside the index file and a comparison between that stored value and
the current mtime of the address book file is done when somebody runs pine.
If the mtime has changed since the index file was made, then pine will
want to rebuild the index file.
In other words, don't build the index file with this option and then copy
the address book to its final destination in a way which changes the
file's mtime.

-d debug-level

Output diagnostic info at
debug-level
(0-9) to the current
.pine-debug[1-4]
file. A value of 0 turns debugging off and suppresses the
.pine-debug
file.

-d key[=val]

Fine tuned output of diagnostic messages where "flush" causes
debug file writing without buffering, "timestamp" appends
each message with a timestamp, "imap=n" where n is between
0 and 4 representing none to verbose IMAP telemetry reporting,
"numfiles=n" where n is between 0 and 31 corresponding to the
number of debug files to maintain, and "verbose=n" where n is
between 0 and 9 indicating an inverse threshold for message
output.

-f folder

Open
folder
(in first defined folder collection, use
-c n
to specify another collection) instead of INBOX.

For PC-Pine only, this option causes PC-Pine to prompt for some basic
setup information, then exits.

-k

Use function keys for commands. This is the same as running the command
pinef.

-n number

Start up with current message-number set to
number.

-o

Open first folder read-only.

-p config-file

Use
config-file
as the personal configuration file instead of the default
.pinerc.

-P config-file

Use
config-file
as the configuration file instead of default
system-wide configuration file
pine.conf.

-pinerc file

Output fresh pinerc configuration to
file, preserving the settings of variables that the user has made.
Use file set to ``-'' to make output go to standard out.
<IP> -registry cmd 20
For PC-Pine only, this option affects the values of
Pine's registry entries.
Possible values for cmd are set, clear, and dump.
Set will always reset Pine's registry
entries according to its current settings.
Clear will clear the registry values.
Clearsilent will silently clear the registry values.
Dump will display the values of current registry settings.
Note that the dump command is currently disabled.
Without the -registry option, PC-Pine will write values into
the registry only if there currently aren't any values set.

-r

Use restricted/demo mode.
Pine
will only send mail to itself
and functions like save and export are restricted.

-sort order

Sort the FOLDER INDEX display in one of the following orders:
arrival, date, subject, orderedsubj, thread, from, size, score, to, cc,
or
reverse. Arrival
order is the default.
The OrderedSubj choice simulates a threaded sort.
Any sort may be reversed by adding
/reverse
to it.
Reverse
by itself is the same as
arrival/reverse.

-supported

Some options may or may not be supported depending on how Pine
was compiled.
This is a way to determine which options are supported in the particular
copy of Pine you are using.

-url url

Open the given
url.
Cannot be used with
-f
or
-F
options.

-v

Version: Print version information.

-version

Version: Print version information.

-x config

Use configuration exceptions in
config.
Exceptions are used to override your default pinerc
settings for a particular platform, can be a local file or
a remote folder.

CONFIGURATION

There are several levels of Pine configuration. Configuration values at
a given level over-ride corresponding values at lower levels. In order of
increasing precedence:

o built-in defaults.

o system-wide
pine.conf
file.

o personal
.pinerc
file (may be set via built-in Setup/Config menu.)

o command-line options.

o system-wide
pine.conf.fixed
file.

There is one exception to the rule that configuration values are replaced
by the value of the same option in a higher-precedence file: the
feature-list variable has values that are additive, but can be negated by
prepending "no-" in front of an individual feature name. Unix Pine also
uses the following environment variables: